Reef Casa Studio 12 Dream Build

[416Reefer]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

Looks like a little googlie-eyed creature is living in a hole in your forest-fire?

 

And then funnily enough, right after I noticed that I went and looked at my tank up close to see how it’s doing after my changes I made last night and saw a little googlie-eyed creature in my tank too… mine is my possum wrasse… lights are still out in the tank… never knew he slept in there!

 

I went and checked and it must have been a bubble or something because there is definitely nothing there.  Odd. 

[banasophia]

44 minutes ago, 416Reefer said:

I went and checked and it must have been a bubble or something because there is definitely nothing there.  Odd. 

Oh wow, what a trip! Yeah you can see a bubble on the water’s surface in another part of the pic… 

[416Reefer]

Just so that everyone doesn’t think that everything is always going perfectly in this tank this week I will be reflected on the mushrooms and some of my struggles with them. 

To start off I should mention that I have never had luck with mushrooms in any of my tanks.  I’m not sure whether it is an issue with lighting or whether my insistence on large water changes but for some reason I have always struggled with them. 

Right now I have 3 mushrooms in the Reef Casa studio 12. The Purple Anthrax mushroom is actually doing quite well but it is in such a shady area that the colours aren’t very vibrant but it has grown quite a bit and dropped a couple of babies.   I have one Florida ricordea  (pretty sure I spelled that wrong) that is nice and bright and colourful but has barely grown in the last year or so.  I also have one smaller one that has gone pretty much all white and I’m sure isn’t going to make it but I’m scared to try and take the plug out because it’s so close to my torches and I don’t want to knock one off.  There was also a rhodactis mushroom that melted within a week of me adding it to the tank and is long gone.  I was really hoping to fill in some of the rockwork between the corals with mushrooms so I am a little bit stumped!

Bottom line I haven’t had all that much luck with mushrooms so if anyone has any ideas or has better luck that I do please share because I really do find them beautiful but for some reason I just can’t seem to grow them successfully. 
 

[BioReefed]

1 hour ago, 416Reefer said:

please share because I really do find them beautiful but for some reason I just can’t seem to grow them successfully.

The Ricordea mushroom was the first thing I added in my tank (16g Biocube) 6 months ago when I started my tank, and it has already quadruple in size. The other 2 were not attached so they kept moving around with the water flow and are losing their colors. 

So maybe in your case, I was thinking could be the lights. The ones I have are the ones that come with the tank and they seem to like it. Also I make a 3 gallon water change every 2 weeks, I dose All for Reef and I add some aminos every other day.

[banasophia]

I’ve never had much luck with mushrooms in any of my tanks either, before my Studio 12, but in the Studio 12 with the Halo light they seem to be doing well.
 

My green mushrooms seem especially happy and are splitting, and my ricordea floridas aren’t splitting but they are still looking good, whereas in my Biocube 16 I think they shriveled up and faded away over time.

 

I don’t target feed my corals at all, they just get the light and any food they catch when I’m broadcast feeding the fish. 

[BioReefed]

the gray one on the right was the same size as the yellow one on the left a few months ago.
 

[416Reefer]

3 hours ago, BioReefed said:

the gray one on the right was the same size as the yellow one on the left a few months ago.
 

Wish I could get mine to grow like that !

[416Reefer]

I think it’s probably a combination of too

many water changes and maybe the light is turned up a bit too high.  It’s hard with a mixed reef tank to get the balance right. 

[416Reefer]

No huge changes with the tank this week.  I broke a piece off of my new TNT anacropora in my other tank so I took out the dead mushroom (still a bit perplexed by that ) and add it.  I don’t know if it will get enough light down there but if it does well it will do a nice job of adding some red to that part of the tank as well as filling in the gap under the upper ledges.  Only time will tell !

probably the trickiest corals I have added to this tank are my two hammer corals (and later the frogspawn).  At first I had placed the two hammers on the ledge where the birdsnest coral is now but there was way too much flow.  Then moved them to roughly where the two torch corals are now but I was worried they would make the tank look too too heavy when they grew in. So finally I settled on where they are now.  However I placed them too close together initially and had to move time one final time.  I think they may still be too close together in the long term.  I added the frogspawn much more recently and haven’t had to move it, although I may have to one day.  One thing I find with euphyllia (definitely spelled that wrong!) is that it is difficult to strike a balance between what looks good today and what will work in 6 months or a year. 

I certainly love how those 3 corals look now but I do have some concerns about what will happen when they get bigger. 
 

 

 

 

[416Reefer]

This week is my my last look at some of the corals in my Studio 12 and how they have done over the last year

First off is my open brain coral. I’ve had this coral for about 3 years now and I think it has been in at least 3 tanks.  It’s always been a bit of a slow grower but it’s definitely done really well.  I think like a lot of my LPS corals it likes the higher nutrient levels in this tank.  It’s always nice and inflated and the while it has never been the most exciting colours it is as bright as it has ever been. 

The Raptors Peace favia has grown a little bit slower than a similarly sized piece in my other tank.  I think it is because it is directly under the light and is probably getting a bit too much PAR but I dont really have anywhere else to put it. The colours are good so I am content to just let it grow slowly. 

I’ve been really happy with how my Gorilla
Polyps have done.  They have grown nicely into the rockwork and look really natural.  My scans are doing pretty good as well but I’m starting to worry that they are going to get shaded by the hammers soon. 

And now a moment of silence for all the blastos that have died in this tank.  When I first started my plan was to have a blasto and rock flower anemone tank and I have lost 3 blastos and 2 RFAs.  For some reason the blastos all melted and the RFAs didn’t do well either.  It just goes to show that even the best plans don’t always work when you are dealing with living things I guess. 

All in all I would say that 90% of the coral types that I have put in this tank have thrived and about 10 percent have struggled.   
 

[416Reefer]

I took some whole tank photos this week because it is quite possible that this will be my last weekly update of the Studio 12 mixed reef at its best.  I've really enjoyed this tank and had a lot of success (as well as some issues) but I think it might be time to try something different.  

 

This is the first time that I have ever actually "finished" a tank and I'm definitely having mixed feelings about going through with an overhaul.  However, some of the corals are getting too big and are shading each other and I don't think it will be very long before some of them (especially the hammers and torches) get too big for the tank.  

 

All in all I have been super impressed with the Reef Casa tank and the Halo light and it's the first time I have ever had success with torch corals, which was a major win for me.  The colours really popped and it looked great as a mixed reef.

 

I've never had success keeping acropora in any of my tanks (I think it was from not having enough flow because I was also trying to keep lower flow corals such as hammers)  It seems to be a fairly common opinion that is it much easier to keep acropora in an SPS dominant tank rather than a mixed reef so that is what I am going to try in the Reef Casa Studio 12.  The plan is for a total rescape but first I am going to sell or trade in most of the corals in the tank.  I am going to keep the hellfire torch, orangle plate coral and yellow and blue octospawn and put them in my other tank.  

 

I'm going to keep this thread going and document the shutting down and rebooting process and then hopefully sometime during the fall I can start to try and create an acropora tank.

 

Thank you to everyone for all of their feedback and support with this tank and I'm looking forward to trying something new!

[banasophia]

Ah wow, surprised to hear this news!! The tank looks so great and it seems your corals are doing really well. You sure you want to convert this beauty to an acro tank? They are so high maintenance… and they don’t move!! 
 

After trying an SPS dominant tank myself I realized they aren’t for me. But that being said, if that’s what you decide to do I know I’ll enjoy following along to see what you come up with!!

[debbeach13]

The tank looks great! I understand wanting to change things up. Good luck with your new adventure and definitely keep posting.

[416Reefer]

9 hours ago, banasophia said:

Ah wow, surprised to hear this news!! The tank looks so great and it seems your corals are doing really well. You sure you want to convert this beauty to an acro tank? They are so high maintenance… and they don’t move!! 
 

After trying an SPS dominant tank myself I realized they aren’t for me. But that being said, if that’s what you decide to do I know I’ll enjoy following along to see what you come up with!!

It was something I had been thinking about for a while.  I really like how the tank turned out but it was starting to look like a smaller version of my other tank (which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing). Time for something different !  Plus I want to see if the Halo light can grow acros.  I think there is definitely enough wattage. 

[416Reefer]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

The tank looks great! I understand wanting to change things up. Good luck with your new adventure and definitely keep posting.

I’ve never “finished” a tank before and have mixed feelings about taking it down but looking forward to trying something new.  If I wait a 3 or 4 more months I think I’ll be running into problems if I don’t start fragging some of my lps corals (which I have never had luck with). Much prefer to pass the corals to a new home rather than risk harming them 

[416Reefer]

 

Well there is no turning back now!

 

Today I took most of the corals off the rockwork and put them on new frag plugs to take to my LFS tomorrow to trade.  It was bittersweet starting to take the tank down but I am really excited to try something new!

 

I have to say that taking corals in and out of my tank is one of my least favourite things to do.  I am always worried that I will break something... although I guess since I am starting the process of taking this tank down I was a little bit less nervous than usual.  

 

I kept my hellfire torch and the blue and gold octospawn and put them in my other tank and I will ultimately hold on to the orange plate coral and the raptors peace favia and put them in the revamped acropora dominated Studio 12.

 

In terms of where I am going from here this is my rough plan

 

1) Trade in most of the corals to my LFS

 

2) Find somewhere that sells the liferock nano arches for my new aquascape.  I know that they can be shipped but I would much rather buy them locally so they don't get broken in transit.

 

3) Post the rockwork with the encrusting corals and mushrooms etc. that I can't remove on Kijiji and see if I can get a few dollars for them.  I don't want to throw out living things so I may eventually just give them away but there are some things that I just can't remove. I assume someone will take them.

 

4) Start to plan the rockwork, flow upgrades etc for the new tank.

 

I am planning on keeping the Halo light since one of my purposes with this is to see if it is able to grow acropora.  Having said that I have never had success with them in any of my tanks so if it doesn't work I don't think the light will be the issue!

 

Looking forward to the changes and seeing how this all works out!

 

[416Reefer]

The Hellfire torch in its new home !

[416Reefer]

I made Fragbox tv ! 

 

https://youtu.be/Xovx8mv9Wys

[Lebowski_]

I had a feeling you had some kind of affiliation with them. Seems like Fragbox is doing a lot of guerrilla marketing.

 

Either way, I hope they get some of those weeping willow toadstools back in stock 😅

 

I talked to that lady in the vid (I think) at an expo, she really wasn't enjoying herself lol but I think she was there with Reef Casa.

[Sharbuckle]

You did a great job with this tank. Looking forward to the sps version. 

[416Reefer]

19 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

I had a feeling you had some kind of affiliation with them. Seems like Fragbox is doing a lot of guerrilla marketing.

 

Either way, I hope they get some of those weeping willow toadstools back in stock 😅

 

I talked to that lady in the vid (I think) at an expo, she really wasn't enjoying herself lol but I think she was there with Reef Casa.

Nope ! 🙂 just a longtime customer! 

2 minutes ago, Sharbuckle said:

You did a great job with this tank. Looking forward to the sps version. 

Thanks! I’ve got the rockwork on my floor ! 

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, 416Reefer said:

I made Fragbox tv ! 

 

https://youtu.be/Xovx8mv9Wys

Famous! 😁  You are so lucky Fragbox is your LFS… they have such a great coral selection. Can’t wait to see what acros you choose for the reboot.

[416Reefer]

On Monday I went to Fragbox (which I’m very grateful if my LFS) to trade in most of the corals out of the Studio 12… and I even made it on Fragbox TV!

 

I decided to upgrade the pump to the Sicce 1.0 and added a dual nozzle random flow generator as well. I’m really hopeful that this will give me enough flow for the Acropora tank without having to clutter it up with a power head.   Unfortunately they didn’t have the Carib Sea Liferock nano arches that I wanted but I was able to get them shipped and they arrived intact (which I was a bit concerned about). In hindsight I didn’t need the pack of 4 and currently have 2 posted for sale on Kijiji.  

 

I was planning on making a complicated negative space aquascape but I think I will chicken out and just put two arches together. I’ve tried all the combinations and I think this one is the best.  I am trying to have as little rock touching the sand bed as possible to help with flow.  I am trying to resist the urge to fill the tank with rock since the corals will (hopefully) fill it in. 

 

The next step is to give the rock a good rinse and take the old rock work  out of the tank. There hasn’t been much interest in purchasing the anacropora or encrusting corals so I think I will save one of each of the anacropora to start the new tank off with and try to save a piece of each of the encrusting corals for my larger tank.  I have also bought a new proper stand because my garage sale stand isn’t as sturdy as I would like and I am having visions of the stand collapsing and dumping salt water all over the electrics.  Hopefully most of that will happen on Monday.  

 

I am going to keep the sand bed so hopefully it won’t take too long before it is ready for corals. I figure by keeping a small piece of each of the anacropora I will have a good idea of when it’s ready for the acros.  

 

I think I have a plan and fingers crossed it all goes smoothly ! 

[PJPS]

Eager to see if this works out 👍🏻

 

I’ve found return flow (even strong with RFGs) not to be enough for acros in my IM 20, but it might work in the Studio 12.  
 

I went the other way with my studio 12, added the dual RFGs, but added an underpowered pump to slow the flow through the filtration, and added a Nero 3 pulsing gently for in tank flow.  It’s softies and gorgs.

 

I find managing parameters quite challenging in a 20G all in one, 12 might be pretty challenging with acros in the first 18 months.  Hit the montipora hard and buy cheap slimer acro frags until your tank settles would be my stocking advice for not throwing away money 🤓

 

Good luck my 🇨🇦 brethren ✊🏻
 

PS - the rock work looks great!  it’s already NSA, and liferock looks infinitely better when you can keep it as intact as possible.  I use it in both my tanks.

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, 416Reefer said:

On Monday I went to Fragbox (which I’m very grateful if my LFS) to trade in most of the corals out of the Studio 12… and I even made it on Fragbox TV!

 

I decided to upgrade the pump to the Sicce 1.0 and added a dual nozzle random flow generator as well. I’m really hopeful that this will give me enough flow for the Acropora tank without having to clutter it up with a power head.   Unfortunately they didn’t have the Carib Sea Liferock nano arches that I wanted but I was able to get them shipped and they arrived intact (which I was a bit concerned about). In hindsight I didn’t need the pack of 4 and currently have 2 posted for sale on Kijiji.  

 

I was planning on making a complicated negative space aquascape but I think I will chicken out and just put two arches together. I’ve tried all the combinations and I think this one is the best.  I am trying to have as little rock touching the sand bed as possible to help with flow.  I am trying to resist the urge to fill the tank with rock since the corals will (hopefully) fill it in. 

 

The next step is to give the rock a good rinse and take the old rock work  out of the tank. There hasn’t been much interest in purchasing the anacropora or encrusting corals so I think I will save one of each of the anacropora to start the new tank off with and try to save a piece of each of the encrusting corals for my larger tank.  I have also bought a new proper stand because my garage sale stand isn’t as sturdy as I would like and I am having visions of the stand collapsing and dumping salt water all over the electrics.  Hopefully most of that will happen on Monday.  

 

I am going to keep the sand bed so hopefully it won’t take too long before it is ready for corals. I figure by keeping a small piece of each of the anacropora I will have a good idea of when it’s ready for the acros.  

 

I think I have a plan and fingers crossed it all goes smoothly ! 

I love this scape - great job!